Google Maps goes indoors

"Where am I?” and “What’s around me?” are two questions that cartographers, and Google Maps, strive to answer. With Google Maps’ “My Location” feature, which shows your location as a blue dot, you can see where you are on the map to avoid walking the wrong direction on city streets, or to get your bearings if you’re hiking an unfamiliar trail. Google Maps also displays additional details, such as places, landmarks and geographical features, to give you context about what’s nearby. And now, Google Maps for Android enables you to figure out where you are and see where you might want to go when you’re indoors."

From http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-frontier-for-google-maps-mapping.html

Koha does not mean 'to steal'

This makes me extremely angry. One of our key online tools is our library catalogue Koha. It's patron-centred, allowing students and staff to write review, tag items, create and share reading lists, rate and recommend books- it's a wonderful tool for promoting literacy. It was developed 12 years ago by the Horowhenua Library Trust and open sourced as a gift to the world (koha means gift in Maori). It is inconceivable that a foreign corporation could apply for, and receive, a trademark for the word Koha in New Zealand. It was developed here, it's a common Maori word and it's community owned. Large international firms who can hire better lawyer than a community trust shouldn't be able to bulldoze their way through law. It's just wrong.

Donations are being gathered here for the legal fight.

Unconferences for CPD

At our school last week, we  held our first ever Unconference for staff professional learning. I've been to quite a few unconferences (or barcamps) before but this is the first time I've been part of one where the whole school stops and takes part for two days.

An unconference is a participant-driven event. Rather than inviting people to attend a conference where everything has been decided by others in advance (the speakers, the content, the timetable, the spaces etc.) an unconference emerges out of the strengths and interests of the people who attend.

The 'open grid'

How does it work?
The open grid: if you would like to meet up with others to talk about something that interests you, write the title of the session in one of the timetable slots on the day. Anyone else who wants to take part (or co-convene with you) turns up at the appointed time and contributes what they can. It makes for a very responsive, very engaging event which is grass roots and bottom up. If your session sounds similar to one already being proposed, merge the two and co-convene.

Unconference session in progress

I was lucky enough to attend sessions run by my colleagues on things like:

• Role plays and the mantle of the expert in the classroom
• Using Facebook to build community with classes
• Creative use of teaching space strategies
• Strategies to give useful feedback to students
• Effective groupwork strategies

But the absolute BEST thing about the unconference was seeing the transformation that takes place when you empower a group of teachers with the belief that they have a powerful contribution to make to the way learning happens inside their school. Outside experts are great, but the first step to transforming any learning organisation should be to tap into the amazing practice that is going on in classrooms every day. And, better than one-off conferences, all of the experts I heard from will be in the staffroom at lunchtime if I want to carry on the conversation.

The two ideas we kept coming back to were 'the answers are in the room' and 'what if your contribution is the key ingredient?' If you've never been part of an unconference before, do it; you won't regret it.

Hackerspaces in schools

Hacking (in its old sense of pulling old things apart and making new things from the parts) has a wonderful link with learning. When we learn something new, we take our existing schema (or frameworks to assist understanding) and add new information into them. We pull apart, remake, remodel, expand and adjust them to take onboard new concepts and information. So wouldn't it be great to facilitate more hacking in schools? Here one approach to doing just that:

What happens when you turn a middle school library into a hackerspace?

Can homework do more harm than good?

Yes, is the short answer. Here's an interview from RadioNZ's Nine to Noon show with Richard Walker (associate professor at the University of Sydney) about his new book called 'Reforming Homework'.
In short, there is limited evidence that homework does much more than blunt a student's desire to learn. To be fair, there is some evidence that a small amount of homework / reinforcement at senior levels does improve student achievement. A really thought-provoking interview.

All I want for Christmas is an Android tablet

Here's a 'ruggedised' Android tablet designed especially for younger students. The design might be more Fisher-Price than MOMA, but the fact that it's being sold by Toys-R-Us is an indication of how far touchscreen tablets have come in the last two years. Do you think I could buy one and pretend it's for the kids? US$199

http://www.theverge.com/2011/11/10/2551758/toys-r-us-nabi-tablet-kids-199-99-price-availability

Infographic: mobile phones and teenagers

This is a pretty comprehensive run-down of mobile phone use by teenagers. Some points to note:

• 40% use phones to do last-minute study before exams
• 88% text during class time (despite this being 'banned'- are you winning the war on this?)
• Scary: 25% have been at one end of 'sexting' or the other. Woah!
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Created by: HackCollege